No more rich men for Marley Cartman. Absolutely not. Thanks to her dad, her ex-fiancé, and the overbearing donors she schmoozes for a living, she's had more than her fill. From now on, she wants blue-collar men with dirt under their fingernails. But when Marley makes a break to handle donor relations for a wildlife sanctuary, she finds herself drawn to the annoyingly charming—and disturbingly wealthy—chairman of the board.

The kind of man she doesn't want

Judging by his hipster T-shirts, motley assortment of canine companions, and penchant for shaking up stuffy board meetings, you'd never guess that William Barclay the Fifth is a brilliantly successful businessman. Will has good reason to be leery of scheming women, and as he and Marley butt heads over the wisdom of bringing grumpy badgers to charity events, he can't help but wonder if his new donor relations coordinator is hiding something other than a perfect figure beneath that designer suit...

Get a sneak peek of Tawna Fenske's Frisky Business (available May 6, 2014) with an exclusive excerpt of a selected scene.

At the sound of Marley’s scream, Will dropped the giant pink bunny he’d lugged all the way to her front porch. The massive stuffed rabbit landed with its ear flopped over Will’s crotch as its glassy eyes leered with undisguised glee. He shoved the animal’s head aside and grinned at Marley, who gaped at him from the doorway.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I take it you weren’t expecting company?”

Marley blinked and looked from Will to the bunny and back to Will again. Her hair was tousled and her feet were bare, and Will was certain he’d never seen her look so beautiful.

Those unfamiliar with the romance genre may assume selecting careers for one’s characters is a simple task. He’s either a duke, a pirate, or a kilt-clad Scotsman, while she occupies her time stamping her pretty little foot and contemplating how heavily to heave her bosom.

Those of us who read, write, and love romance know there’s more to it. In fact, choosing and researching characters’ professions is one of the most crucial tasks romance novelists face (second only to selecting the shirtless men to massage our feet while we write).

One of my favorite romantic comedy authors, Jennifer Crusie, is the master of picking professions that put her hero and heroine at odds with one another. Welcome to Temptation features a small town mayor and a videographer who may or may not be making an adult film that could jeopardize the mayor’s career. Faking It stars a professional con artist and a painter with a history of forgery.

Numbers never lie, so Violet McGinn found safe haven in the most boring profession she could find. Until her renowned psychic mother lands in the hospital and Violet has to run her business. Now you can have your taxes filed and your aura read, in one convenient location.

Drew Watson is the jaded owner of the local hot spot next door, and doesn’t need a single thing except a good crowd to dance to what he’s spinning on Saturday night.

The only thing Violet and Drew seem to have in common is that neither believes in that psychic hoo-hah. Except Drew seems to play exactly the right song at exactly the right time. And truth be told, it makes Violet’s heart dance just a little ...

Get a sneak peek of Believe It or Not by Tawna Fenske (available March 6, 2012) with an excerpt of Chapters 1-2.

Chapter 1

Violet McGinn stormed into her mother’s hospital room with her hair on fire.

Literally, as it almost happened.

“Would you please put out that candle!” she snapped, batting flames away from her long, dark hair as she dodged the dreadlocked stranger. He sighed and retreated to a far corner of the room where a tie-dyed huddle was chanting something that sounded suspiciously like pig latin.

Getting Dumped is an “Active Fiction” title, a new type of e-book from Coliloquy. In this Active Fiction series, your input influences future books from this author. Specifically, in Getting Dumped, your choices influence what happens to JJ Shultz.

Losing a cushy marketing job only to end up driving heavy equipment at the landfill would be a tough blow for most women, but JJ Schultz isn’t most women. JJ gamely swaps office politics for a chance to crush garbage. The drama kicks into high gear when JJ and her sister, Lori, uncover a counterfeit handbag ring. JJ soon finds herself unraveling a sinister plot in the company of a tie-tugging accountant, a straight-to-video action hero/secretary, a suspicious but sneaky-hot engineer, and a host of other characters with questionable hygiene and morals. The author still isn’t sure who JJ should end up with, so she’s eager to see who her readers prefer. She sees the aggregate statistics on who gets picked the most, so the more you read, the more you influence what she writes.

Get a sneak peek of Getting Dumped by Tawna Fenske (now available) with an excerpt of Chapter 1.

Chapter 1

When I was a little girl playing in my uncle’s sand and gravel lot, my life’s ambition was to drive a dump truck. Or maybe a front-end loader.

It began with the usual childhood fantasies about Tonka trucks, but morphed into a bit more when I spent my teenaged summers hauling dirt and digging trenches to earn money for college and designer handbags. While my peers nursed their teen angst with Seagram’s wine coolers, I relieved mine smashing boulders in a Magnum 30 Rock Crusher.